‘That place is a nightmare’: 30 years of Coors Field pitching horror stories
Thirty years ago, the New York Mets and Colorado Rockies opened Coors Field on April 26,1995 in a game that would embody the beauty (if you’re a hitter) and absurdity (if you’re a pitcher) of the ballpark, when they combined for 20 runs and 33 hits in an 11-9, 14-inning Colorado win. It was just the beginning of a baseball experience like no other.
Standing 5,280 feet above sea level in Denver’s LoDo neighborhood, the picturesque ballpark is one of the sport’s gems, constantly ranking near the top of MLB stadium rankings and keeping the Rockies’ attendance among the league’s highest regardless of the home team’s record.
“Since 1995 I’ve been at nearly 95% of the games played at Coors Field,” owner Dick Monfort told ESPN last week. “Of all those thousands of games, my fondest memories are of a sold-out ballpark on an 85-degree day with no humidity, a beautiful sunset, and 50,000 men, women and kids soaking in the timeless magic of iconic Coors Field.”
But for the pitchers who have taken the mound at the stadium over the past three decades, Coors Field is something else: a house of horrors.
‘S—, the whole time there was a horror story, man,” said Marvin Freeman, who started 41 games for the Rockies over the first two years of the ballpark. “We called it arena baseball. It was like a pinball machine up in there sometimes. Balls were flying out of there. And you just had to make sure when you did leave Colorado you maintained some sanity because it could be hard on your mentality.”
To commemorate the anniversary of a launching pad like no other, we asked those who have pitched or taken the field at a place where breaking balls don’t break and a mistake left over the plate can travel 500 feet into the mountain air to share their best (er, worst) Coors Field horror stories.
A big swing haunts you: ‘It’s all part of the Coors experience’
On May 28, 2016, Carlos Estevez was less than a month into his major league career when he entered in the eighth inning against the San Francisco Giants with a daunting task: facing a future Hall of Famer in a one-run game.
Before Buster Posey stepped into the batter’s box, Estevez’s Colorado coaches and teammates gave the reliever some advice on how to approach the situation.
“I remember throwing a fastball away,” Estevez recently recalled to ESPN. “He could crush pitches close to him. ‘Stay safe. Go away. He’s going to single to right field, worst-case scenario.’ I’m new. The new guy was showing up.”
When Posey connected on a 96 mph fastball on the outer half of the plate with a 2-0 count, it momentarily appeared to Estevez that following the advice had paid off.
“I go [points in the air like pitchers do for popups]. It was one of those. The ball goes out. I didn’t even look anywhere else. I just kept my face down,” Estevez said. “Oh my god. That was so bad. After that, never again — unless I knew the ball was right on top of me. Man, that was bad. I felt so bad. The older guys, of course, made so much fun of me with that. Like, bro, you don’t know where you’re pitching.”
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Flashback: Buster Posey cranks his second 3-run HR of the game
On May 28, 2016, Giants catcher Buster Posey takes Carlos Estevez deep for his second three-run homer of the game at Coors Field.
If Estevez can take solace in anything from that day, it is that his experience mirrors that of pitchers throughout the sport — just ask Ubaldo Jiménez, who had a run of stardom for the Rockies until being traded in 2011. “We were like, you can never point up, you can never think it is a fly ball, because it’s probably going to go out.”
Jerry Dipoto, Rockies reliever (1997-2000) and current Mariners general manager: I saw some of the longest home runs that a human can possibly hit. At the height of Mark McGwire, I watched him literally hit one over the scoreboard, which, if you have a chance and you stand at home plate, look at the left-field scoreboard, the Coke bottle that used to run alongside the scoreboard. He hit it over the Coke bottle, into the parking lot, through the windshield of Jerry McMorris, our owner, which was awesome.
Andrés Galarraga and Mike Piazza hit home runs over the center-field fence, over the forest in the rock waterfall up there, and up into the concourse that has like a 20-foot opening, looks like something out of “Star Wars,” and they were both line-drive missiles that probably only stopped because they hit something out in the concourse.
Ryne Nelson, opposing pitcher: I haven’t pitched there a ton, but C.J. Cron hit a ball that felt like it was 10 feet off the ground the whole way and it left the yard. So I’m not sure if it would’ve been a home run everywhere, but it was one of the more impressive home runs that I’ve given up.
Dipoto: I can remember giving up a homer to Henry Rodriguez to left field, one year when he was at the height of hitting homers. It was like a broken-bat, end-of-the-bat, oppo, what I thought was just a floater. It wound up in the wheelchair section out there.
Jeremy Guthrie, Rockies starter (2012): I was facing the Oakland Athletics. And they hit at least two, maybe three, upper-deck home runs. I was not under the impression they weren’t going to go out. Seeing balls go further and further and fans boo louder and louder, though — it’s all part of the Coors experience.
Dipoto: They had a row of seats in the upper deck in right field that was like a ring around the upper-deck seats, and it was a mile above sea level. An absurd distance beyond home plate.
I remember I had a really difficult time through the years with Ray Lankford. And Jeff Reed was catching me one day and I’m trying to get fastballs by Ray Lankford and I can’t get anything past him. It’s foul ball, foul ball, it feels like a 10-pitch AB. And he comes walking out. And every day in spring training, in my catch game, I’d throw a changeup. I didn’t actually have one or throw it in a game. It was just something to try to get some feel. Reeder came to the mound and said, “Hey, what do you think about just throwing that changeup?” I said, “I’ve never done it in a game, Reeder.”
He said, “Yeah, if you’ve never done it in a game, he won’t be expecting it either.” So I threw a changeup, and I actually threw it for a strike, and he hit it above the purple seats. It wound up going a mile. Like literally going a mile.
Tyler Anderson, Rockies starter (2016-19) and current Angels pitcher: My rookie year when I was called up … I remember there was a runner on first and two outs, which usually you feel pretty safe.
[Evan Longoria] hit like a line drive that got past the second baseman, where normally you’re like, “All right, there’s runners on first and third now.” And it just like rolled all the way to the wall. He got a triple and the runner scored from first. And I remember thinking to myself, How the heck is that a triple? Obviously I was pretty young in my pitching career, but I pitched a lot in college and the minor leagues, and that was never a triple. That was crazy. I remembered that. And I always thought pitching in Coors Field, it doesn’t matter if there’s only a runner on first, you’re never safe. Two outs, runner on first sometimes could feel safe, but it’s never safe.
Freeman: I always liked to say that every bad game that I had at Coors Field was because of Coors Field, not me. I usually fall back on that. But I do remember one particular case where I made it into the ninth inning, my son was going to be born the next day, and I was actually on the mound thinking about pitching my first complete game.
I ended up giving up a home run to Hal Morris. He hit an opposite-field home run on me. And Ellis Burks, I thought he was going to jump the fence and bring it back, but he didn’t catch it. And then I end up getting knocked out of the game in the ninth inning, and we subsequently end up losing that game, and my son was born the next day. That’s really the only game that sticks out to me … you gotta try and survive the next one.
ERAs turn into a scary sight: ‘That place is a nightmare’
Late in the 2023 season, then-Minnesota Twins reliever Caleb Thielbar boarded the plane to Colorado with something treasured by pitchers everywhere — an ERA starting with a 2.
With the Twins trailing 6-4 in the series opener, Thielbar was summoned from the bullpen to face Rockies star Charlie Blackmon. Thielbar retired the Colorado outfielder and left the outing with his sub-3.00 ERA still intact.
But the next day, with the Twins ahead 14-0, Thielbar entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning — and his ERA wasn’t so lucky that time.
“It was my last outing of the year and I gave up back-to-back homers,” Thielbar told ESPN earlier this month. “And it bumped my ERA up over 3.00. And just one of those things that makes you mad and it stuck with me for a little bit.
“I don’t understand how to pitch there. For some reason, the Rockies have always kind of gotten me — no matter home or away — so they really got me there. But that place is a nightmare.”
Even though the back-to-back home runs hit by Colorado’s Elehuris Montero and Sean Bouchard pushed Thielbar’s ERA from 2.67 to a season-ending 3.23 mark, you’ll have to excuse some other pitchers who might not feel too badly for someone whose Coors Field horror story only involves allowing two runs.
Guthrie: I don’t know that I had any good outing at Coors. I know my ERA was 9.50 [at Coors] and 3.67 on the road that year. I really did want to pitch well there. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I went in with high hopes and a positive attitude. There aren’t as many people who go in with a good attitude as you hope. I really felt like the organization treated pitchers, and especially new pitchers, in a way where it’s almost inevitable you’re going to struggle. You need to change the way you prepare. You need to be aware of how your body is going to react at high altitude. Nothing felt different physically. I just pitched a lot worse.
Among the 223 pitchers with at least 40 innings at Coors, Guthrie’s 9.50 ERA is second worst, ahead of only Bryan Rekar, who posted a 10.16.
Walker Buehler, opposing pitcher: If you’re a starting pitcher and you normally go six, seven innings — going five innings there is some sort of accomplishment. I think honestly the toughest part from our side of it is not necessarily the home run, which a lot of people think it is. The field is so big. You give up a lot of hits you normally don’t give up.
On June 27, 2019, Buehler gave up 13 hits over 5⅔ innings at Coors, although the Dodgers won the game 12-8. Buehler gave up seven of the eight runs and his ERA rose from 2.96 to 3.43.
Honestly, it’s probably a top-five ballpark in baseball, but I just don’t think our game should be played at that kind of elevation. It legitimately changes the game. It’s just different. I don’t know if there’s some sort of f—ing dome vacuum technology thing we can get going there or what.
The scoreboard becomes a horror show: ‘Every game there is like a football game’
Sometimes it doesn’t matter who is on the mound at Coors Field, especially in the summer months when the days get warmer and the Rocky Mountain air gets even drier. An entire pitching staff can leave the ballpark with a battered ERA.
In fact, teams have averaged at least five runs per game at Coors Field in every season it has existed. Over that span, there were just three seasons since 1995 when the MLB average was 5.0 runs per game or more (1996, 1999 & 2000).
Even in the ballpark’s long history of scores that look like they belong in a football game, four-hour marathons of runners touching home plate and double-digit rallies, one series stands out from the crowd. Over four days on Father’s Day weekend of 2019, the Rockies and Padres combined to score 92 runs, setting a modern record for runs in a four-game series by surpassing a total set by the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers … in 1929.
“Every game was like 15 to 14 or something like that. We would take the lead and then they would take the lead and then they would take the lead back,” recalled Trevor Story, the Rockies’ shortstop from 2016 to 2021 and a current Red Sox infielder. “It was just back and forth the whole way. Every game of the series was this way, so it was just mentally exhausting. You felt like whoever hit last was going to win. I think we lost a series and it ended up, it was just kind of deflating because we put up all those runs. That series sticks out to me.”
The teams scored in double digits five times, six runs were the fewest for either team in any game, and the Padres’ team ERA jumped from 4.23 to 4.65 while the Rockies’ rose from 4.97 to 5.29.
“My god, that series against the Padres. PTSD still. Between both teams, we scored 92 runs in a four-game series. It was miserable,” Estevez said. “That series just ran through everyone. Everyone gave up runs. [Fernando] Tatis had an amazing series. I don’t know what he didn’t do. I mean, he didn’t pitch.”
While not every series is quite that extreme, almost anyone who has spent enough time at Coors Field has a similar story to tell.
Ryan Spilborghs, Rockies outfielder, 2005-11: One of my favorite memories of Coors Field was against the Cardinals. We were down 7-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning, and we ended up walking off the Cardinals. The best part of it was Tony La Russa. Threw his hat and broke his glasses. And so the next day, it was a Sunday and they didn’t have time to get his glasses fixed so you could see him. He got them taped. Looked like the Poindexter glasses. So we’re just loving it. We’re like, “Hey, we broke La Russa’s glasses.”
Bruce Bochy, opposing manager: We had a game in which Bob Tewksbury started great, six or seven good innings. I had to take him out when we were ahead 9-2, and Willie Blair went in and we lost 13-12.
Dan O’Dowd, Rockies general manager, 1999-2014: You’d give up five or six runs, and you’d be like — ah, no problem. You never felt like you were out of it.
Clint Hurdle, Colorado Rockies manager, 2002-09, and current hitting coach: It’s almost like when we were playing street basketball. You get your two teams together. Last bucket wins, right? That’s what I realized early on. But it was going to be a blessing and a curse because your position players actually started believing we’re never out of it.
Jack Corrigan, Rockies radio broadcaster: Even with the humidor and everything else, the outfield’s the biggest in baseball, the wind — I think sometimes that’s why it’s a great place to watch a game. The Rockies might be a bad team that particular year or whatever, but it might be a heck of a game.
Trevor Hoffman, opposing pitcher: Every game there is like a football game. The offense always has a chance. I cannot imagine playing 81 games a year like that.
The altitude goes to your head: ‘This is not baseball’
Jim Leyland took the job as Rockies manager in 1999 coming off a sustained run of success in Pittsburgh and Miami — and lasted only a year. Buck Showalter managed the opposing Diamondbacks in one of Leyland’s final games in Colorado, and after the game, Leyland told him he was finished. “He said, ‘I’m out of here. You can’t win here.’ He was done,” Showalter recalled over the weekend. “He said, ‘I love the game, I want to manage baseball. This is not baseball.'”
Near the end of that season, Leyland turned to then-first-year general manager Dan O’Dowd and said, “Do you have any f—ing idea what you’ve gotten yourself into?”
O’Dowd stayed with the organization through the 2014 season and was constantly racking his brain for ways to manage the unusual circumstances in Colorado.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, he says he would try the model that the Rays use: build around player development, and then, when young players are at their peak trade value, flip them for a big return. “I’d have waves and waves of depth — power arms, strike throwers and athletic guys.”
Showalter was heavily involved in the planning and building of another expansion team of that era, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and wonders how the pitcher-centric approach would work sustainably at Coors Field. If you were running the Rockies, he said, “You’d have to develop your own pitchers. You’d take pitchers in all 20 rounds. You’d have to be three layers deep.”
The longtime manager also noticed during his time competing against the Rockies that there was always some new idea on how to conquer Coors Field.
“It seems like everybody has had some magic potion [to deal with the elevation], but none of them worked,” Showalter said. “It wore on you physically to play games there.
“What they should do is put a 40-foot-high jai alai wall and play it off the fence, and use four outfielders.”
O’Dowd’s attempts to reinvent baseball at altitude were never that extreme, but he did oversee the deployment of the ballpark’s humidor in 2002, and looking back, he “almost wishes I hadn’t.” In some ways, it mitigated the home-field advantage that the Rockies had in the early days of the ballpark — and he believes that in order for the Rockies to have success, they have to thrive at home, because the inherent closer-to-sea-level or at-sea-level conditions in road games will always be a disadvantage for the team.
“We were looking for a way to normalize the game. … In hindsight, it would’ve been better to not have it.”
Bud Black, Rockies manager, 2017-present: Other managers, coaches come to me. I’m sure they came to Baylor. Leyland quit after one year. They say, “How do you do it? How can you hang in there?” I just know that when I was with the Padres and we’d come in, our hitters were like, “Yes!” Our pitchers were like, “Oh, s—.” You can see pitchers visibly rattled.
Freeman: It wasn’t just the Rockies. It was the visitors. Some of them guys that came in, they were coming up with mysterious injuries for three days when they came in for a series with the Rockies, man. I know for a fact some of my Braves buddies used to ask me all the time, “How do you guys survive mentally out here?” We’re like, “We just look forward to going on the road when it’s our time to pitch.”
Bochy: They had one of those smoke shops by the ballpark. I always said they put that there for the managers, to stop there and get something that would get them through the game.
It’s a different game — a totally different game. It’s a beautiful ballpark, with the architecture, the Rockpile, everything they have there. But it changed how you played the game. You had to manage a little bit different, stay with your starting pitchers a little longer because you could really tear up your bullpen over a series.
LaTroy Hawkins, Rockies reliever, 2007, 2014-15: I think because they let the elements intimidate them. They’re mind-f—ed already, before they even get there and before they even take the mound. They’re already mind-f—ed. And that’s not having a positive attitude about the situation. Hey, everybody else pitches in this stadium. Everybody else. I’m going to have to pitch in it too. Let me go in it with a positive mental approach — PMA — a positive mental approach to Coors Field. And that’s how I got through it.
Kyle Freeland, Rockies starter, 2017-present: It is not an easy place to pitch. It comes with its factors with the altitude, the dryness, how hard it is to recover in that environment that guys throughout the rest of the league don’t understand until they come to Coors for a four-game series and they realize their body feels like crap on Day 2, and that’s a big factor.
Shawn Estes, Rockies starter, 2004: You always looked at the calendar when the schedule opened and you knew when you were going to pitch and when you’re not going to pitch. So you know you have three trips into Coors and you have a pretty good idea if you’re going to pitch in any of those series. Put it this way, if you find out you’re not pitching for three games there, it’s probably the best road trip you take of the year.
Dipoto: I remember the first or second year of interleague [games], John Wetteland, who at that time was one of the best closers in the league, comes in and blows a save. He was really fighting himself. And the next day, he comes out and gets ready to walk in from the visitors bullpen and he [knocks] on the cage, and he looks at us all getting ready for the start of the game, and he says, “I have to know, how do you guys do this?” And everybody told him the same thing: “Short memory, man. You just have to move on.”
Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies starter, 2006-11: Colorado is a different monster than anything else. If you go out there for a couple innings and you start throwing, I don’t know, 20, 25 pitches, you’re probably going to be out of breath right away. If you run to cover first base, when you go back to the mound, you’re going to feel the difference.
I wanted to be out there regardless of how difficult it was. I wanted to be out there for the fans. It made me develop; it made me be a better pitcher because I work hard. I work really hard. I worked so hard, running-wise and conditioning-wise. I remember I used to do the stairs in the stadium, or I used to go to Red Rocks Amphitheatre that’s like 20 minutes away from Denver, like going to the mountains. Rocky is the one who inspired me for sure. Every time I had to run in the mountains, I ran — I just didn’t chase the chicken. Other than that, I did pretty much everything Rocky did just to get ready for Coors Field.
Your stuff disappears in thin air: ‘They tell you to keep it down, don’t listen’
Pitchers are taught to “trust their stuff” from the time they first pick up a baseball, but at Coors Field, they learn quickly that pitches don’t do what’s expected.
During Dipoto’s four seasons in Colorado, Rockies relievers bonded over the shared experience of sitting beyond the outfield walls while waiting to go in and find out how their stuff would fare on a given night.
“There’s a storage room in the back of the bullpen at Coors Field, where during the course of a game — because you’re so far out, I mean, it’s the biggest field in the league — we would sit because we had a small TV at that time that would allow us to see what was happening in the game. … There’s these brick walls, painted brick walls. Every reliever had his own brick, and you got to write a message to all the relievers that came after you. It was related to the ballpark, some of the challenges. It was almost like a yearbook, but it was, in theory, preserved forever because it was on a brick wall.
“The trick was you weren’t allowed to have a brick until you gave up four runs in an inning. And everybody had a brick. So this was going on for like five years, and everybody who had come and gone had their own brick, even guys who were kind of small-time then. And [general manager] Bob Gebhard walked in one day and saw the messages on the wall and got angry with the relievers for writing on the wall and had the grounds crew paint over it. All of a sudden what was really something special that you could pass along from generation to generation, and mostly just laugh it off, like you have to be able to laugh at that, got covered over.
“My brick was something along the lines of, ‘They tell you to keep it down — don’t listen.’
“I went to Colorado. And the first thing — Billy Swift was one of our starters. And I walked into the clubhouse; we shared an agent. Billy shook my hand and he said, ‘Sinkerballer, right?’ And I said ‘yeah.’
“He said ‘Good luck, bro. It doesn’t work.'”
Even when the humidor was added after Dipoto’s time in Colorado, pitchers routinely saw their trusted pitch mixes abandon them at high altitude.
Spilborghs: A couple of years ago, they had to repaint in the bullpen [again], but if you went into the bullpen before, all there, all these great names of pitchers like Huston Street, Tito Fuentes, literally all these great bullpen arms, and they’d have their line — a third of an inning, nine hits, nine runs — written on the wall. Just to prove to you that Coors Field would get everybody.
Estevez: What you’re used to, it doesn’t work up there. If you’re a big sweeper guy, the sweeper doesn’t do anything, it just spins. Guys that are not up there for a long time, they go, like, “Man, my sweeper is off today.”
No, bro, it’s not. It’s just Coors Field. You’re fine. Trust me. That’s the thing. Even your fastball doesn’t ride as much. What plays better over there is changeups. It’s hard to find what truly works over there. For me, you’ve got to find the consistency.
Zack Wheeler, opposing pitcher: I’ve been lucky to miss it a bunch, thankfully. I did get roughed up there early in my career, but you hear about breaking stuff not breaking like it should. The ball flies, of course. When I made the All-Star team in 2021, when the game was there, the bullpen catcher told me to break out my changeup if I had a good one. I didn’t know about that until he told me. So now I tell everyone that I know, “Hey, if you have a good changeup, use it.”
Anderson: The ball flies, your stuff doesn’t move. When you throw two-seams, sometimes they cut. So if you’re a two-seam guy — like you know the seam-shift, right? I think what’s happening with some of these two-seams is they’re a seam-shift to two-seam where the seam catches, then it gets to two-seam. And maybe because the air is thinner it doesn’t have the same catch. So it just cuts instead.
Hoffman: The thing that I remember about pitching in Coors is that you just couldn’t feel the baseball.
The former star reliever tried different methods to get some moisture onto his hands to rub up the ball. Saliva didn’t work, because he would be dried out — it’d be like spitting cotton balls, he said. Remnants from chewing gum could make the surface too tacky.
Hoffman is in the Hall of Fame largely because of the excellence of a straight changeup that he threw — and when he pitched at Coors, it just wasn’t the same changeup.
The velocity was the same, but the pitch just didn’t have the same depth. I threw some good ones, but sometimes the changeup would just sit there, like it was on a tee.
Of course, it was Hoffman’s Padres teammate, Jake Peavy, who took the mound in the most famous game in Coors Field history — Game 163 of the 2007 MLB season.
Late in the regular season, the Padres were fighting to clinch a playoff spot and knew in the last weekend that if they tied the Rockies, necessitating a play-in game, the tiebreaker would be held in Coors Field. Needing just one win to wrap up a berth, the Padres lost on Saturday — and Jake Peavy met with manager Bud Black and general manager Kevin Towers and lobbied hard for them to let him pitch the next day in Milwaukee. Peavy begged Black and Towers to let him pitch Game 162 in Milwaukee on Sunday, and he thought that Towers would back him. But Peavy was overruled: Black and Towers hoped that the Padres would clinch without Peavy, so they could line him up against the Phillies’ Cole Hamels in Game 1 of the playoffs. Instead, the Padres lost Sunday, and Peavy started Game 163 in Colorado.
Peavy: I’ve been part of a lot of great games there, but that place is not baseball. It’s a different game than anywhere else. I was a sinker-slider guy, but I didn’t use the sinker there; I couldn’t. Because half the time the ball would cut and go the opposite way.
That team was hotter than anybody on the planet, and [the elevation] took my sinker away from me — and I didn’t have that against Holliday, Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki. That’s a huge weapon taken away.
What happened in Game 163 was classic Coors: Colorado led 3-0, fell behind 5-3, the two sides swapping the lead back and forth. Peavy allowed six runs in 6⅓ innings. The Padres took an 8-6 lead in the top of 13th, and in the bottom of the inning, the Rockies scored three to win 9-8 on Matt Holliday’s famous slide. Peavy has never looked at a replay of the close game-ending play at home plate.
What’s the point?” Once he’s called safe, it doesn’t matter anymore. We didn’t have replay back then.
Slaying the Coors Field monster: ‘My first time pitching at Coors was unbelievable’
Yet despite all of the horror stories, some pitchers have managed to succeed at Coors Field, whether for a single start or a sustained period — and speak of their experience in the same conquering manner a mountain climber would after scaling a hallowed peak.
Shawn Estes was well-versed in pitching at Coors Field when he joined the Rockies for the 2004 season, having spent the first seven seasons of his career with the division-rival San Francisco Giants. Though his 5.84 ERA was the worst of any full season during his 13-year career, he also won 15 games for the Rockies during his lone season in Denver, and he credits a mindset shift for helping him succeed.
“As a [Rockies] player pitching in Coors Field, I could care less what my ERA was. That wasn’t my mentality at all. It was about winning. And fortunately I had enough years of playing against the Rockies in Coors Field where I knew exactly what I was getting into.
“It was really trying to get through five innings, minimize the damage and know that your offense is going to score runs as well. As a visiting player, it was all about survival when you went to Coors Field and just trying to somehow get through the meat of that order with as little the damage as possible.”
But of the 34 starts he made for the Rockies in 2004 (15 of them in Colorado), it was the last time he took the mound at Coors Field in a home uniform that still resonates most for Estes, because he outdueled a Hall of Famer — and even registered a base hit off him.
“I remember beating Randy Johnson there for my 15th win in 2004. And I got a hit off him. Yep, I threw seven innings. That was probably my best game that season when you consider everything.”
Estes is not the only one who looks back with fondness at the times he stood tall at the game’s highest elevation.
Mark Leiter Jr., opposing pitcher: My first time pitching at Coors was unbelievable. I punched out nine in four innings. Second time I pitched at Coors, struck out five in the first two innings and it was early in the season so I got tired. I would say the thing about Coors is it definitely fatigues you a little more. That’s definitely real. And I think you have to be precise — like, you can’t have lazy finishes.
I feel like the second you change how you’re pitching because it’s there, you lose out on your flow. And that’s where I think guys get intimidated, if I had the right way to put it. Just being more selective and careful of your off-speed puts you probably in more of a defensive mode.
Jeremy Hefner, opposing pitcher: The game I pitched well, I think it was a makeup of a snowout earlier in the year. So we were somewhere, had to fly to Colorado for one day, and I end up making the start. I gave up a homer right down the left-field line to Tulo. I think CarGo [Carlos Gonzalez] may have hit a double or a hard hit. I got an RBI groundout — bases-loaded RBI groundout. I remember it being very sunny. The opposite of when we came earlier in the season.
Blake Snell, opposing pitcher: I can’t remember just one [horror story] but I can remember the opposite of one. July 19, 2016. My first game there. I gave up one hit. I was young and naïve. I’ve never pitched well there since.
When asked “What do you think of first when you think of Coors Field?” Snell paused before summing up what’s on the minds of many pitchers as they arrive in Colorado’s thin air.
When we fly out.
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Greg Wyshynski
For NHL general manager of the year Jim Nill, the free agent frenzy didn’t feel all that frenetic this year.
“We knew going in that there wasn’t a lot of depth in this free agent group,” said Nill, of the Dallas Stars. “The cap has increased a lot, so teams are able to sign their own guys. That’s a major part it.”
For NHL teams, that was one lesson learned. Here are four things we gleaned as free agency opened this week.
Higher salary cap, more reasons to stay home
NHL teams are usually bumping their heads up against the salary cap ceiling. This offseason, by comparison, was like walking into a cathedral.
The NHL and NHLPA announced in January that the upper limit of the 2025-26 salary cap was going to be $95.5 million, a jump of $7.5 million over last season’s cap ($88 million). But the financial comfort didn’t stop there. The NHL also announced cap estimates for 2026-27 ($104 million) and 2027-28 ($113.5 million) that could grow higher depending on revenues.
It was a genius labor negotiating tactic for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who quieted any rage against the machine by the players by showing them their potential salary growth if the current system was kept in place. It also gave their teams a chance to aggressively spend to improve their rosters under a rising cap.
But instead of feeding a free agent frenzy, the increased financial flexibility created an opportunity for more players to stay home:
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The Florida Panthers kept their trio of star free agents in Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad.
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The Columbus Blue Jackets signed Ivan Provorov for seven years and an $8.5 million annual cap hit.
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Brock Boeser, one of the most coveted scoring wingers on the market, signed a seven-year deal to remain with Vancouver even after saying he believed his time there was done.
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Veteran scorers like Claude Giroux (Ottawa Senators), John Tavares (Toronto Maple Leafs), Matt Duchene (Dallas Stars), and Brock Nelson (Colorado Avalanche) all stayed with their teams.
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Key defensemen like Jakob Chychrun (Washington Capitals) and Neal Pionk (Winnipeg Jets) avoided free agency months ago on new deals.
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While K’Andre Miller and Noah Dobson were both traded, many more restricted free agents who could have been offer sheet targets re-signed with their teams, like Evan Bouchard (Edmonton Oilers), Matthew Knies (Toronto), Logan Stankoven (Carolina Hurricanes), Morgan Geekie (Boston Bruins), Martin Fehervary (Washington) and Alexander Romanov (New York Islanders).
1:58
K’Andre Miller’s top plays from the 2024-25 NHL season
Check out the best plays from last season by K’Andre Miller, who has signed a deal with the Hurricanes.
“What we’ve noticed in the last 48 hours is how many guys re-signed with their own teams and didn’t even hit the free agent market,” Columbus GM Don Waddell said.
The free agent market was already going to be sparse this summer. The rush of talented players who decided to remain with their clubs made it barren for some positions of need.
“I know everybody wants to talk about second-line centers. There’s probably, by my count, 27 teams that are looking for them,” Toronto GM Brad Treliving said. “The ones that have them aren’t giving them out too quickly.”
One of the reasons teams get active in free agency is to change the makeup of their roster. But San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier noted that with the extra salary cap room, more teams were opting for players they were already familiar with rather than dabbling in the unknown.
“I don’t know if it’s right to say that teams went out of their way to sign their own guys, but with everyone having a little bit more money, what the market might show is that instead of teams overspending on someone you don’t know, it’s better to lock up the player you know,” he said.
There were still players who embraced the chance to leave for new teams: Mikael Granlund, getting $21 million over three years with the Anaheim Ducks; Vladislav Gavrikov, getting $49 million over seven years from the New York Rangers; and, of course, Mitch Marner, getting $96 million to leave Toronto for the Vegas Golden Knights. But many more big names stayed put.
Every offseason, teams are battling against one of the truisms of NHL free agency: That players won’t leave their current teams because “their stuff is there.” Now, thanks to the NHL’s skyrocketing salary cap, the challenge is greater: Their stuff is there, and teams now have the financial flexibility to retain them.
“Talking to other managers, there wasn’t as much pressure financially in terms of space that teams have,” Treliving said. “With the cap rising, it gave everybody more salary cap space to retain their own players.”
NHL’s tampering problem? Not enough teams use it for leverage
Trying to crack down on tampering before NHL free agency is a preposterous task. It’s not just that everyone talks to everyone else everywhere there’s hockey people in the offseason — from the scouting combine, to the pubs, to the pubs near the combine — but that the concept itself is hard to define within the context of what the NHL cares about enforcing. It’s a bit like cap circumvention: They know what goes too far when they see it.
Ottawa owner Michael Andlauer accusing the Rangers of “soft tampering” last season because the New York Post speculated they would take a run at acquiring Brady Tkachuk? The NHL didn’t care.
Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning openly discussed acquiring players under contract such as Steven Stamkos in 2016? NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly fined him $50,000.
Daly has been the NHL’s enforcer on potential tampering. At a 2024 NHL general managers meeting, Daly gave a presentation reminding them what was or was not allowed regarding communication with pending free agents and other players under contract. Sportsnet reported that part of that refresher were potential penalties for tampering, ranging from a $5 million fine for a team and $1 million for an executive, with potential forfeiture of draft picks and suspensions on the table as well.
The reason for the tampering lesson: Daly wasn’t happy with “some commentary in the media around July 1 that indicated that there may have been contact and negotiation before July 1,” he told The Athletic.
In the summer of 2024, we had situations such as Tyler Bertuzzi telling the media that Chicago Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno called him the day before free agency to inform him that his team was interested in signing him. Said Chicago GM Kyle Davidson: “We don’t ask them to do these things, but Nick cares. He knows a lot of people, he loves the team and he wants to push this thing forward.”
So, tampering then …
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Why Mitch Marner is a great fit for Vegas
Greg Wyshynski reports on Mitch Marner getting traded from the Maple Leafs to the Golden Knights.
The T-word came up again this week in relation to Maple Leafs star Marner’s pending free agency. Marner, 28, came to Vegas in a sign-and-trade with the Maple Leafs before free agency officially started Tuesday. The Golden Knights sent center Nicolas Roy to the Leafs, who signed Marner to an eight-year, $96 million contract that carried a $12 million annual cap hit before trading him to Vegas.
There was speculation for weeks that Marner was going to be playing for the Golden Knights. To hear him tell it, the idea first took hold at the NHL trade deadline, when Vegas attempted to acquire Marner in a three-way deal that fell apart. Marner said that was the first time he considered Vegas a long-term home for him and his young family. When he got word that Vegas and Toronto were talking trade Friday, Marner said he decided to forgo any free agent bidding war to commit to Vegas, so as not to “lose that opportunity.”
But Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on his podcast last week that there was talk around the NHL that “the Maple Leafs will go after Vegas for tampering” with Marner. Teams had been on high alert since Daly’s comments. The thought was, according to Friedman, that the league might want to make an example of a team accused of tampering.
“If they make a deal with Toronto and send a good player to Toronto, I’m betting that any chance the Maple Leafs file for tampering goes away,” Friedman said.
Roy is a good player, filling a need at center for Toronto.
Treliving declined to address the tampering speculation. Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon wasn’t asked directly about it during his news conference, but made several statements that seemingly addressed the accusation, including:
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Trade discussions at the deadline “were initiated by Toronto.”
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The sign-and-trade was made to get an eighth year on Marner’s contract, or else his AAV on a $96 million seven-year deal would have been $13.7 million. “That really impacts our ability to take the player onto our team,” he said.
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The trade allowed them to open communications with Marner’s camp. “We wanted to be able to create a one-on-one relationship with his representatives in terms of trying to do a contract,” he said.
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Misinformation about his team around free agency has been rampant, saying there’s “a long list of things that have gone on the last month that had absolutely [no] credibility. It’s shameful, to be honest.”
Assuming there are no other steps taken here, the “tampering” around Marner will just be a part of NHL lore, mentioned in passing whenever Roy does something for Toronto — or Vegas laments his absence.
But it does bring up, hypothetically, a way for the NHL to tamp down on tampering: Have the teams police themselves. Using the pressure points of punishment to force a sign-and-trade or other transactions to “make this go away.” It’s probably a cleaner way to go about this than to have the NHL define how much tampering is too much tampering. Until, of course, Daly has to address the general managers about extortion and blackmail.
The Panthers have maintained their dynasty — and played defense
Next season, the Panthers will attempt to do something that no club since the Islanders in the early 1980s was able to do: Make a fourth straight Stanley Cup Final and a win a third straight Stanley Cup.
That they’ll do so with the services of center Sam Bennett, defenseman Aaron Ekblad and winger Brad Marchand — despite all three of them having a chance to test unrestricted free agency for the first time — is nothing short of extraordinary from a managerial standpoint and infuriating from a competitive standpoint.
GM Bill Zito vowed that he would be able to sign Bennett, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP; Ekblad, a top-pairing right-shot defenseman, a coveted position on the open market; and Marchand, the veteran star who had the best series of his career in the Stanley Cup Final.
But there were theories as to why all three might leave. Bennett could have gotten a huge contract as a second-line center, an area of need for many contenders. Ekblad would enter a free agent market that lacked anyone with his skill set or pedigree. There was talk Marchand could get $10 million annually from teams like Toronto or the Utah Mammoth in exchange for his scoring, leadership and renowned intangibles.
But in the end, Zito was right: All three are still part of the Panthers’ formidable core.
Bennett was the first to sign at eight years and $64 million. Ekblad followed at eight years and $48.8 million. Marchand then signed for six years — making him a Panther until he’s 43 years old — and $31.5 million.
“I didn’t do anything. It was those guys. There’s no gray area whatsoever. This was 100 percent those guys wanting to be part of something that they created,” Zito said. “We’ve waxed poetic about the team and the community they’ve become, and this is a great example of what it means to them.”
1:55
Aaron Ekblad’s top plays from the 2025 NHL playoffs
With Aaron Ekblad signing an extension with the Panthers, relive his top plays from this year’s postseason.
Bennett said he was comfortable with the money, but that money can’t buy happiness. “There’s been times earlier in my career where I didn’t enjoy it as much, and I certainly don’t take it for granted now,” he said. “Being in South Florida has just completely changed my life, and I love playing hockey there. I love living there. It’s really the dream situation. So I couldn’t pass up the chance to be back here for another eight years.”
Ekblad was drafted first overall by the Panthers in 2014 and never wanted to leave. His negotiation was a bit more tenuous with Zito. “Both sides are playing hardball at different times and sometimes you feel like you’re getting further apart or closer together,” he said, “but it ultimately came to the right deal and a good deal for both sides.”
Zito played a little defense here, too. Signing Bennett means no one else gets a win-at-all-costs playoff MVP in his prime. Ekblad won’t be patrolling the blue line for Carolina, Dallas or another contender. The Leafs seemed like they were keeping their powder dry to make a run at Marchand, who was a Toronto fan growing up. The Panthers themselves said that last year’s Toronto team was the toughest they had seen in the playoffs in years. What could the infusion of Marchand’s savvy — and the removal of the Leafs’ greatest postseason adversary from an opponent — do to one of Florida’s chief divisional rivals?
But Treliving didn’t get his hopes up about stealing any of them from Florida.
“We’re not in their meetings, but when we looked from afar, the anticipation was that those guys would be back,” he said.
And they are back, for several more runs at the Stanley Cup, on a roster packed with high-end talent who fit snugly under the salary cap. Inevitably, the conversation about the Panthers gets back to one of the most ubiquitous debates in the NHL: the advantages that teams with no state income tax have over the rest of the league.
Zito has addressed this before, calling the advantage “marginal at best” for the Panthers, saying it’s more about the team’s ownership and the way players are treated.
“They know that if the chicken isn’t right, that we’re going to get new chicken. It sort of transcends all that we do,” he said to laughter. “It sounds silly, but it’s true and it’s real. The sun doesn’t kill us. It’s a nice environment to live in. It’s a good place for families. It’s a good place for singles. It’s got a little something for everybody. But so many of the players who have come to us have had career years and it’s a function of the coaches and players in the room.”
Dallas GM Jim Nill also has a state with no income tax.
“Are there some advantages? Yes, but every city has certain advantages. In the end, it’s ‘are you successful?’ Because that’s going to open the door first when you’re talking to players,” he said. “When the money’s the same, players want to win. That’s the important thing.
“Nobody wanted to go to Florida for 10-12 years. Dallas, 15 years ago, was in bankruptcy. No one was coming here. So do the right things, be competitive, have a good team, that means you’ll usually have a good fans base. Great weather, great city … those are kind of the cherries on top. But the core of it was the hockey operations.”
Ekblad echoed that in discussing why him, Bennett and Marchand all decided to stay. And why players like Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling are all signed through 2030. From the quality of their practice rink to the hotels in which they stay to the food they devour, he said the organization does it all for them to a high level of satisfaction.
“So it’s easy to want to stay here. And then the culture of winning is just a huge draw to guys. It’s the most important thing. It’s why we play the game. We’ve all been taken care of extremely well,” Ekblad said. “I don’t know how many teams in the league have 10 guys locked up for five years, but it’s really cool. There’s a pride factor involved.”
There are always (perceptional) winners and losers
In 2019, the Florida Panthers signed Sergei Bobrovsky to a seven-year deal with an average annual value of $10 million. It was called the “biggest overpayment of free agency” at the time; as recently as two years ago, it was deemed one of the worst contracts in the NHL.
Two Stanley Cups, three trips to the Final and a rising salary cap later, the investment in Playoff Bob is a bit more justifiable.
That’s just a reminder that this week’s great signings or terrible decisions are inherently just a first impression. It could take years before their impact can be properly measured beyond what are calculated risks at best or leaps of faith at worst right now.
All that established: There are clearly teams that have come out of the first days of the frenzy with better optics than others. After speaking with a few NHL sources this week, one team that has gotten good marks is the New York Rangers.
One current NHL player told us he loved the signing of defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (seven years, $7 million AAV) as the best defensive defenseman available, and a new partner for Adam Fox. Multiple sources were fans of the bridge deal for forward Will Cuylle (two years, $3.9 million) as a reasonable cap hit for a burgeoning player, while keeping him away from offer sheets. One NHL capologist also admired the K’Andre Miller trade to Carolina, turning a potential offer sheet target into a first-rounder, a second-rounder and a young puck-moving defenseman in Scott Morrow, while clearing cap space that Gavrikov quickly filled.
As expected, there was a lot of love for what Florida did in retaining its three unrestricted free agents. One current NHL coach said it was a “master class” by Zito, taking full advantage of a rising salary cap to retain Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand. But another source wondered about how the Panthers will ultimately begin the season under the salary cap, as they’re around $2.95 million over it at the moment. Options range from trading a player such as Evan Rodrigues to potentially starting the season with Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve. Zito didn’t offer an update on Tkachuk’s status during his Tuesday news conference.
But while some teams thrived, others made a different first impression. The three teams that sparked the most skepticism from our sources:
Boston Bruins: While the Bruins did some good business in securing RFA Morgan Geekie with a six-year deal with a $5.5 million annual cap hit, that good will was squandered with their signing of forward Tanner Jeannot to a five-year deal with a $3.4 million AAV. Since scoring 24 goals in 2021-22 for Nashville, Jeannot has scored a combined 20 goals over the last three seasons with the Predators, Lightning and Kings. One source likened the signing to Bruins GM Don Sweeney signing forward Matt Beleskey to a five-year deal with a $3.8 million AAV in 2015. He had 18 goals in 143 games for the Bruins. By year three of the deal, he was in the AHL.
Los Angeles Kings: New GM Ken Holland went on a shopping spree Tuesday, signing forward Joel Armia (two years, $2.5 million AAV) and Corey Perry (one year, $2 million); defensemen Brian Dumoulin (three years, $4 million AAV) and Cody Ceci (four years, $4.5 million AAV); and goalie Anton Forsberg (two years, $2.25 million AAV). The moves weren’t met with universal praise from Kings fans. One NHL player we spoke with said his peers have offered a similar reaction. “Every guy I’ve talked to couldn’t believe what they did,” he said.
Vegas Golden Knights: While the signing of Marner was praised, there was some concern from our sources about the team’s overall depth. That included moving bottom-six center Roy to Toronto in order to facilitate the sign-and-trade with the Leafs for Marner. One NHL coach was also curious about the defense corps next season, given that the team announced that Alex Pietrangelo will no longer be an active NHL player due to injuries, and that it traded RFA defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Predators, a player the coach felt is “very underrated.”
Of course, the thing with first impressions is that they can always get a second glance down the line. Today’s risky play could be tomorrow’s Stanley Cup champion.
Watch out Yankees … the American League East is heating up.
New York has seen its division lead be entirely erased as it’s now tied with the Blue Jays atop the division with the Rays just a half-game back. Both Toronto and Tampa Bay reached their highest rankings of the season this week at 10 and seven, respectively, while the Yankees hold fast at No. 6.
Elsewhere in the AL, the Astros have steadily moved up our list to No. 4, also their highest ranking of the season, after having ranked 17th as recently as mid-May. Houston has ridden its momentum to a seven-game lead over the Mariners, who have fallen to 14th after peaking at No. 8 in early June, in the AL West.
What will the next week and a half before the All-Star break bring?
Our expert panel has ranked every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts David Schoenfield, Alden Gonzalez and Bradford Doolittle to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.
Record: 55-32
Previous ranking: 1
It’s not just that Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow have yet to rejoin the rotation. It’s not just that Shohei Ohtani is stretched out to only a couple of innings. It’s not just that Michael Kopech joined 11 other pitchers by landing on the injured list Tuesday. It’s that the Dodgers remain at the top of the standings even while getting very little from two of their most important offensive contributors. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts combined to slash just .221/.293/.303 in the month of June. The Dodgers — with their rotation shorthanded, their bullpen in flux and the top of their lineup compromised — went 17-10 in June regardless. — Gonzalez
Record: 54-33
Previous ranking: 2
The legend of Tarik Skubal grows with each outing. When Skubal struck out 13 Twins over seven innings Sunday, it was the second time this season he has struck out that many hitters while throwing under 100 pitches. He also did it once last year. Baseball-Reference has pitch data mostly complete dating to 1988, and in that time, Skubal is one of only four pitchers to have three or more such games. Jacob deGrom has done it five times, and Freddy Peralta and Gerrit Cole are also at three. Skubal is as efficient as he is dominant. — Doolittle
Record: 51-36
Previous ranking: 3
There were 103 pitchers in June who threw at least 25 innings. They combined for a 3.76 ERA, giving up 1,261 earned runs in the aggregate. Only two of those earned runs were given up by Zack Wheeler, who had a 0.58 ERA over 31 innings in five June starts. There’s a half-season to go, but Wheeler has moved into position to finally earn his first Cy Young Award after his second career second-place finish in last season’s balloting. The Phillies haven’t had a Cy Young winner since Roy Halladay in 2010, who in turn was the first Philadelphia Cy Young winner since the 1980s. — Doolittle
Record: 52-34
Previous ranking: 5
What was most impressive about the Astros’ surge — going 19-7 in June behind dominant pitching and dynamic performances from the likes of Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes — was that they did it without Yordan Alvarez. That will have to continue. On Tuesday, just days before the Astros were getting ready to activate him off the injured list, Alvarez suffered a second setback in his recovery from a fracture in his right hand. He was at the team’s spring training facility in Florida and reported that his hand felt sore after some swinging drills. He will now go see a hand specialist. The Astros can only hope for good news. — Gonzalez
Record: 51-35
Previous ranking: 4
Matthew Boyd continues to make a push for an All-Star selection, beating Cleveland — the team that gave him a chance late last season to make a comeback after Tommy John surgery in 2023 — on Tuesday with a strong seven innings to improve to 8-3 with a 2.65 ERA. He has lowered his ERA to 1.66 over his past seven outings. With Justin Steele out for the season and Shota Imanaga just back after sitting out seven weeks, Boyd has been the only steady presence in the Cubs’ rotation. He has already pitched his most innings since 2019. Now the Cubs will look for some rotation help for him. — Schoenfield
Record: 48-38
Previous ranking: 6
The Yankees finished 13-14 in June, as the offense continued to stumble. After an .829 in OPS in April, it fell to .792 in May and .718 in June. Aaron Judge still hit nine home runs and had a .967 OPS in June, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. was terrific with a .318 average, seven home runs and 19 RBIs. But Paul Goldschmidt hit .143, Ben Rice hit .181 and Trent Grisham hit .229 with only two home runs. All three had been red hot to begin the season, helping to back up Judge early. Let’s see if the Yankees look to add a bat at the trade deadline. — Schoenfield
Record: 48-39
Previous ranking: 9
Junior Caminero is having quite the season. With 21 home runs, he has a chance to become only the third player in his age-21 season to hit 40 home runs, matching Eddie Mathews (47 in 1953) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (41 in 2019). He’s also chasing a more dubious record: Jim Rice’s single-season record of 36 double plays grounded into (Caminero is already at 22). Caminero’s strikeout-to-walk ratio improved in June, which bodes well for him continuing to mash in the second half. After a 26-6 ratio in April and 17-3 in May, it was 18-11 in June. Remember, this is his first full season in the majors. — Schoenfield
Record: 48-38
Previous ranking: 10
Brandon Woodruff will rejoin the rotation this weekend in Miami to make his first MLB start since September 2023, when he injured his shoulder. Woodruff made 10 starts in his rehab assignment, a stretch that included a couple of setbacks when he sustained an ankle injury and was then struck by a line drive. His most recent rehab start Sunday had been his first since June 3 and he gave up four runs with only one strikeout in 3⅔ innings, throwing 82 pitches and topping out at 95.4 mph (averaging 93 on his fastball). Milwaukee’s rotation has eclipsed expectations, but Woodruff would be a huge boost if he’s close to what he was pre-injury. — Schoenfield
Record: 49-38
Previous ranking: 7
The Mets’ slump has deepened to the point where it has changed the team’s competitive context. On June 12, the Mets beat Washington, extending their winning streak to six games and going 21 games over .500. They held a three-game edge over the Cubs for the National League’s top mark. Then New York dropped 14 of 18. Suddenly, the Mets were leading a close and crowded NL wild-card derby, only a couple of games from dropping out of the playoff picture altogether. Needless to say, things are getting stressful at Citi Field. — Doolittle
Record: 48-38
Previous ranking: 14
Alejandro Kirk is playing his best baseball since he started the 2022 All-Star Game. He hit .285 that season with a 127 OPS+ but fell off to a 92 OPS+ in each of the past two seasons. But he hit .365 in May and .337 in June and might be on his way to a Gold Glove Award. He leads all catchers in Statcast’s catcher framing runs and has a caught-stealing rate above the MLB average. He trails only Cal Raleigh and Will Smith in catcher WAR via FanGraphs. The Blue Jays have never had a two-time All-Star catcher, as Kirk, John Buck, Russell Martin and Ernie Whitt each have one selection. — Schoenfield
Record: 47-41
Previous ranking: 11
Sonny Gray threw an absolute gem last Friday, a nine-inning one-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts and no walks to beat the Guardians. The game score of 96 was a career high for Gray and tied a Tarik Skubal start for best in the majors in 2025. Indeed, it was one of the best starts for a Cardinals pitcher since the division era began in 1969. Shelby Miller had a 98 in 2013 (9 IP, 1 H, 13 SO) and Jaime Garcia had a 97 in 2016 (9 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 13 SO). Jose DeLeon has the highest since 1969 with a 103, which came when he pitched 11 innings in 1989. — Schoenfield
Record: 46-40
Previous ranking: 12
The Padres finished the month of June with a losing record — in large part due to their offense, which posted the sixth-lowest OPS and scored the fourth-fewest runs per game. Fernando Tatis Jr. slumped pretty badly, and Jackson Merrill didn’t produce a single home run, but those two are bound to get hot again. The biggest problem — one general manager A.J. Preller is motivated to fix before the trade deadline — is the bottom of the Padres’ lineup. The Nos. 7, 8 and 9 hitters combined to produce a .196/.280/.293 slash line last month. — Gonzalez
Record: 46-41
Previous ranking: 8
When the Giants beat the Dodgers on June 13, they were 12 games above .500 and tied for first place in the National League West. They have since lost 12 of 17 games — including seven of their past nine — and are suddenly fighting just to remain relevant heading into the trade deadline. On Tuesday, president of baseball operations Buster Posey picked up manager Bob Melvin’s 2026 option and, in light of the recent stretch, defended the coaching staff, telling reporters: “If anybody deserves any blame from the top, it should be on me.” — Gonzalez
Record: 45-41
Previous ranking: 13
Cal Raleigh is already one home run away from equaling the career high he set last season — in 68 fewer games. If he manages at least two home runs in the Mariners’ next 10 games — a strong likelihood, given that he is averaging a home run every three games — he will be one of seven players ever to reach 35 before the All-Star break. None of them were switch-hitters. And none of them, of course, were catchers. Before Raleigh, the most home runs a catcher had collected before the All-Star break was 28, by Johnny Bench in 1970. — Gonzalez
Record: 45-42
Previous ranking: 15
Spencer Steer‘s three-homer game propelled him to NL Player of the Week honors. His bat getting going will be important for an offense looking for more consistent firepower from someone besides Elly De La Cruz. Steer hit .174 in April and .270 in May, with only two home runs each month. He hit .302 with five home runs in June. Matt McLain also got it going in June after hitting under .200 each of the first two months. The Reds have also struggled against left-handed pitchers, another reason they need those two right-handed bats to keep improving in the second half. — Schoenfield
Record: 43-43
Previous ranking: 16
The month of June was a roller coaster of highs and lows for the D-backs. It began with four straight wins, then three straight losses, five straight wins, then three straight losses, three straight wins and, shortly thereafter, four straight losses. By the end of it, executives from contending teams were calling D-backs general manager Mike Hazen, wondering if he’d be willing to trade off some of his pending free agents, a list headlined by Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor. Hazen informed them he is not ready to give up on the 2025 season. Barring a sudden, bigger drop-off, that mindset should continue. — Gonzalez
Record: 43-44
Previous ranking: 20
The Rangers basically continue to tread water, with their offense still lagging behind their pitching staff. But one positive has emerged of late: Marcus Semien looks as if he might finally be back on track. The Rangers’ second baseman was slashing .193/.278/.257 at the end of May. Since then, his slash line is up to .321/.387/.560, with 13 walks to 16 strikeouts. The offense in general, though, continues to lag behind. The Rangers have put up a .710 OPS since the start of June, 10 points below the league average. — Gonzalez
Record: 41-44
Previous ranking: 18
A six-game losing streak dropped the Red Sox under .500, and though the offense rebounded with 15-1 and 13-6 wins over the Blue Jays and Reds, Boston will need to decide what to do with Walker Buehler in the rotation. His ERA is now 6.45 after giving up 32 runs in 26 innings over his past six starts, including pitching fewer than five innings in four of the past five. Kyle Harrison, the key return in the Rafael Devers trade, could be an option; although, in his first Triple-A start for the Red Sox, he gave up eight hits and four runs in four innings. — Schoenfield
Record: 39-46
Previous ranking: 19
As the season moves beyond its natural halfway mark, the Braves continue to show little indication that they are about to shake off their seasonlong stupor. In fact, they fell behind the red-hot Marlins in the division after losing their first game of July and are closer to the last-place Nationals than they are to playoff contention. Despite the stellar return to action by Ronald Acuna Jr., the offense hasn’t been supercharged by his presence. His season debut was May 23, when the Braves averaged 4.12 in runs per game, ranking 18th. Since then, Atlanta has scored 4.02 runs per contest, ranking 25th. — Doolittle
Record: 40-44
Previous ranking: 17
As the Guardians try to resuscitate an increasingly lackluster season, shortstop Brayan Rocchio has been recalled, ending a six-week exile to Triple-A. Rocchio made a run at a Gold Glove last season, in part offsetting a 76 OPS+ at the plate, but this year the defensive metrics were down and the OPS cratered at 21 OPS+. He was summoned back to the majors after Gabriel Arias was injured, but Rocchio had been doing well in the minors, hitting .252/.353/.484 with seven homers and seven steals over 41 games for Columbus. The Guardians could really use some of that at the big league level. — Doolittle
Record: 42-43
Previous ranking: 22
Jo Adell was a No. 10 pick out of high school during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season and debuted in the majors at 21 years old. His power, arm strength and speed made many believe he was destined for greatness. Then the strikeouts piled up, the baserunning blunders manifested and the defense looked poor. By the end of the 2024 season, Adell was a .211/.268/.381 hitter in 308 games in the big leagues. The first month-plus of 2025 wasn’t much better. And then, it seems, something clicked. Since May 21, Adell is slashing .295/.381/.628 with 13 home runs in 37 games. At age 26, maybe he has just now figured it out. — Gonzalez
Record: 41-45
Previous ranking: 23
As the Twins tread water in the tepid AL wild-card race, along with most of the rest of the league, things are looking up around their infield. Royce Lewis is back from his latest injury, slotting in at third base. Brooks Lee, who started for most of the second half of June at Lewis’ hot-corner spot, is coming off a big month. And rookie Luke Keaschall is ramping up his activity as he recovers from a forearm injury. Meanwhile, Carlos Correa continues to languish with a 88 OPS+ and a bWAR figure at exactly replacement level. At least the Twins have options. — Doolittle
Record: 40-47
Previous ranking: 21
The Royals have traditionally built rosters that catered to the contours of their ballpark, giving them an above-average home advantage, at least when they’re good. Since Royals/Kauffman Stadium opened in 1973, Kansas City has a home winning percentage 17 points better than its road mark, the 12th-largest disparity of the 30 active franchises. But this year’s Royals have been a disaster at the K, going 20-24 with a run differential that translates to 61.7 wins over 162 games. Their paltry 2.84 home scoring average is more than a half-run worse than every other team in the majors. — Doolittle
Record: 37-49
Previous ranking: 24
The Orioles’ poor first half isn’t just due to their failure to upgrade the rotation in the offseason — the failure of the offense to pick up the slack also shares the blame. The offense has declined from 4.98 runs per game in 2023 and 4.85 in 2024 to 4.15 in 2025 — and that’s after moving in the left-field fence, which masks the offensive struggles even more. The Orioles have a .760 OPS at Camden Yards, but just .654 on the road, where their slugging percentage is in the bottom five in the majors. — Schoenfield
Record: 38-46
Previous ranking: 27
Break up the Marlins! When Miami beat Minnesota to begin July, extending its winning streak to eight games, the Fish at least temporarily moved into third place in the NL East. But the improved play started before the current surge, as the win improved the Marlins to 17-13 over the preceding 30 games. They have been particularly good away from home, going 12-4 in recent weeks and averaging more than 6.19 runs per game, the third-best road scoring average during that span. Miami’s playoff odds remain at pretty much zero, but at least the team is showing signs of trending in the right direction. — Doolittle
Record: 38-50
Previous ranking: 26
Mitch Keller‘s bad-luck season might finally be turning around. After winning his first start, Keller lost 10 decisions in a row, but now he has won two straight after beating the Mets 9-1 and the Cardinals 5-0, lowering his ERA to 3.64. The Pirates have scored two or fewer runs in 11 of his 18 starts. Even though Keller is signed through 2028, his name has popped up in trade rumors, with the idea that the Pirates will have to trade from their rotation to upgrade their long-term future on offense. — Schoenfield
Record: 36-50
Previous ranking: 25
For a rebuild to truly work, teams need some of the prospects they acquire and develop to actually become stars. Washington clearly has one in 22-year-old James Wood, who played in his 162nd career game Saturday. At that point, his career slash line was .273/.367/.492 with 31 homers, 105 RBIs, 95 runs and 24 steals. Wood is on pace to hit 42 homers this season, and if he gets there, that would push his career mark to 51. The only players in Expos/Nationals history to hit more through age 22: Juan Soto (98) and Bryce Harper (97). — Doolittle
28. Athletics
Record: 36-53
Previous ranking: 28
Catcher Shea Langeliers sat out most of June because of an oblique strain, during which his club continued to slide. But the A’s won each of his first two games back, and Langeliers had a major imprint in both of them — a three-run homer in his first at-bat Monday, then a homer, a double and two critical caught-stealings Tuesday. The hope is that his return could help keep this season from spiraling. “Since he’s been back, there’s a new type of energy,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters. “You can see the guys having a little more fun.” — Gonzalez
Record: 28-58
Previous ranking: 29
The White Sox have a long, long way to go but the early work of Chicago’s second-year front office, led by GM Chris Getz, continues to put up some positive results. In addition to a surfeit of productive rookies, including Rule 5 steals, add the second-chance market to their list of successes. These are underproductive veterans looking for a chance to regain their footing and, in doing so, perhaps create some trade value around the deadline. Exhibit A: veteran right-hander Adrian Houser, signed in late May after being released by Texas. Over his first seven starts for the White Sox, Houser has gone 3-2 with a 1.90 ERA and 3.23 FIP. — Doolittle
Record: 19-67
Previous ranking: 30
The Rockies won only 10 games in the month of June. An even bigger problem is that they won one fewer in March, April and May combined. One positive, though, is that German Marquez posted a 2.97 ERA in six starts. Marquez, one of the few homegrown pitching successes in Rockies history, is a pending free agent. And given the inordinate number of teams still within the range of contention, Marquez could yield the Rockies a nice package of young players in return. Of course, he would actually have to be traded — and the Rockies have been known to make pretty questionable decisions this time of year. — Gonzalez
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